Princess Madeleine of Sweden and her husband Christopher O’Neill baptised their daughter, Princess Leonore, at Stockholm’s Drottningholm Palace on Sunday.
Princess Leonore was born in New York three and a half months ago, but the royal couple opted to wait until Sunday, the one-year anniversary of their wedding, to officially christen their daughter at a ceremony attended by the Swedish royals as well as figures from the international media.
Royal baptisms have, in recent times, taken place at the Royal Palace’s Royal Chapel in Stockholm, but Princess Madeleine chose to defy recent tradition and have her daughter’s ceremony at Drottningholm Palace instead. Royal court analyst Roger Lundgren explained that Madeleine considers Drottningholm as extremely important as she was born, brought up and had her wedding reception there.
Around 160 guests attended the service, but no foreign royals were invited. There were also a number of media figures from Sweden and abroad there to witness the occasion; however, far fewer attended the ceremony compared to the number who were present at the baptism of Princess Estelle.
On the day of Princess Estelle’s baptism, some 400 journalists representing 55 media outlets attended, in comparison with around 60 journalists from 40 Swedish or foreign media companies this time out.